Tuesday, 23 February 2016

I have had a largely unplugged weekend as we had a family weekend away on the North Norfolk coast. This was not entirely planned and our accommodation did have a good wifi connection I just didn't feel the need to constantly be on my phone and my laptop never left the bag, However, I did carry my pocket camera around and took a few snaps of the places we visited.

There were beaches

Wells Next the sea beach huts

Winter beach scene

no sand castles today

Wells next the sea

Cromer beach

Wells next the sea harbour

Birds..... Norfolk is famed for it's bird life with many twitchers spending hours observing them.

Seagulls on Cromer Pier

Seagulls lined up for the next snack

Chaffinch waiting for a feed

Keeping a beady eye on things

Mallard and Drake with a perfect DA

Trains, The North Norfolk Railway runs from Sheringham to Holt and has both steam and diesel trains running though out the summer and on selected weekends throughout the year.

letting off steam

Full steam ahead

A pier................. Cromer still has an active theatre at the end of the pier and a cafe that does a luxury hot chocolate complete with flake and marshmallow, just the thing on a February day to warm you through.

Cromer Theatre

Victorian seating to sit and take in the view

seating all along the edge of Cromer pier

Quirky finds

Wells next the sea stamp dispenser, sadly no longer in use

Traditional pebble and flint stone wall which is typical in this area of Norfolk

Lots of rope, all part of the harbourside

tying up in the harbour at Wells next the sea

Wall art at Sheringham beach

I didn't unplug completely and used my phone to take and share some family photos and a couple made it on to Instagram, I think I would find it more difficult to do at home.

Thursday, 18 February 2016

In the spirit of trying to complete some of the WIP projects I have around the house I blew the dust off a tin of blackboard paint that has been lurking under the stairs for a couple of years. My original plan was to use it on a canvas I brought from the poundshop to create a "destination" board, it was for a Christmas gift but as usual I had too many projects and not enough time.

I was inspired to dig it out after I saw a big glass jar/vase with a big swoop of blackboard paint across it saying welcome. I did a quick experiment on a couple of small jars to see if I needed to make any kind of preparation to the glass surface but they seemed fine. Two coats were needed though as one was a little too transparent. The biggest jar we had is the one I piled the decorative tapes into last week so out they came while I got busy with the paint brush, I felt that the proportions were a little bit too wide so I have edged it with some nice washi tape I picked in Wilko

The canvas has finally got it long awaited coat of paint and I am keeping an eye out on my Charity shop hunts far a suitable frame.

Before you write on a blackboard surface it needs to be "seasoned" otherwise what ever you wrtie or draw on there stays in the background and "ghosts" through. To season it you need to take a stick of chalk and using the side rather than the point rub across the surface until it is completely covered, you then rub down still using the side of the chalk, finally you rub off all the chalk and you are ready to use it. The reason for doing this is that the blackboard surface is very porous and this "fills" the surface.

I will not be seasoning the canvas as it has a textured surface, I have ordered a white chalk pen from Amazon but it won't be delivered until sometime between the end of February and the middle of March so I have plenty of time to decide what I am going to put on there.

I am very pleased with how easy this was to do and I have plenty of paint left so I am looking round for other things to paint, anyone got any suggestions?

Sunday, 14 February 2016

Happy Valentines day one and all xx Lets start things of with a little music from Mr Elvis Costello, I have had this song in my head all day and now I am like a lovelorn teenage girl having to listen to it repeatedly whilst I am writing this.

This is the card I made for Hubby, continuing to use up some more of the mountain of decorative tape I showed you on the Valentines tea light holders post I did earlier in the month.

The tea light holders look lovely on the mantle with twinkle lights in them. I managed to use up a little more of the tape on the outside of some tea light candles, these were left over from Christmas so I will be glad to use them up and get them out of the way.

I am very impressed that hubby got me a card and some flowers without me working it out. Since I have been working part-time it has been mentioned that I seem to always be around!!

Am I the only one who seem to break at least one flower head when I am putting them in water, this one is perfect for this little bottle that I have on my welsh dresser.

We have just had a flurry of snow so its out with Elvis and in with Tom and Cerys I hope it will be cleared for the morning. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday whatever you are up to x

Tuesday, 9 February 2016

For those of you who didn't follow the pictures on Instagram here are some pics of the daffs I planted in china teacups here now they are in full bloom. I am classicmini66 on Instagram if you want to see a day by day progression.

Update no 2 - do you remember the rag rug wrote about here that I was going to start? I did a test patch and was really not enthused by the process so the carefully collected bag of T shirts has been donated to Hubby for use in the garage and I will be listing the kit on e-bay where hopefully it will get some use. This is the first page to be deleted from my little notebook, I have a nagging voice in the back of my head that thinks that the WIP pile could turn into a "too be e-bayed" pile!

Have you made any progress with your WIP projects since the beginning of the year or are they destined for e-bay too?

Saturday, 6 February 2016

Love is in the air, not to mention the supermarkets and high street shops! the 2016 St Valentines shopping season has been declared open. This year I have lots of love but not much cash at the moment so the tea light holding jam jars are in for a make over.

I have created a mosaic affect using this selection of this"decorative tape" I got from e-bay.
This was definitely a case of buyer beware also known as don't get clicky on e-bay! I thought I was buying washi tape but what I got was a decorative plastic tape. I was quite overwhelmed by the sheer volume of reels as much as anything and strangely there doesn't seem to be very much tape on any of them. I think I will be good for St Valentine's related tapes for a good few years to come!

I am guessing that most people do not have this kind of tape lying around at home but you probably do have a glue stick or sticky tape and an old magazine or flyer and this would work just as well and of couse this would make it free. I just snipped a piece of tape off, then cut it down into smaller pieces and stuck them on haphazardly to form a rough heart shape. This may be easier to do with paper as you can try things against each other to see how they look before sticking it down. I tried to put something in the middle like a heart of some words to act as a focal point and I overlapped some edges but also left a few small gaps.

I will be putting either tealights or twinkle lights in mine, but they would work very well filled with sweets or chocolates.

I am planning to use the same technique to make my Valentine's card and I will pop up a piccy once I have made it.

Do you celebrate St Valentines? or do you think it is just a commercial fuss over nothing? please share your thoughts in the comments